- Project -
Testbed Development for Geolocation of RF Emitters
The ability to accurately detect the location of
radio signals provides a wide variety of uses ranging from
determining the location of a distress signal from a party or
individual in need of help to locating an interfering signal that
is jamming communications.
A relatively new technology know as Software
Controlled Radios now exists which gives the user a wide
range of options and tools for receiving radio signals. With
a small, light weight interface unit, known as a Universal
Software Radio Peripheral (USRP), coupled with GPS data and
a computer one has the ability to dynamically receive a wide
range of radio signals. By using software scripts to extract
information from these signals, RF signal information is put
into a database file. These data files can then be queried by
scripts and numerical analysis software, such as IPython , to
create RF signal strength diagrams and maps for a particular
Our project creates a test-bed which is a fully functional; the
field unit can operate on battery and send gathered RF signal
information back to a host computer using Wi-Fi technology.
Further, we demonstrate how the radio software can be used to
create helpful information in a user interface, such as: time of
measurement, GPS coordinates of the antenna and strength and
approximate direction of the signal. This system will serve as
a test-bed for researchers, such as the Military, to write more
sophisticated algorithms to use on the captured database
intelligence to a more advanced degree.
